HMS Ganges was the name given to several Royal Navy ships since from 1779, but in 1905 it was chosen as title for a new training base at Shotley Gate, near Ipswich where about 500 boy recruits were stationed. Some 100 boy-sailors were in the canteen, chewing and chattering; clattering knives forks and spoons against plates and bowls. At the tip of the Shotley peninsular sits a cluster of abandoned buildings that were once home to hundreds of young lads right at the start of their lives at sea. Abuse Details. I would imagine it will be a number of years before we see the final product but Ive seen first hand how quickly they can actually make progress once the builders get going. George Blake joined the Navy in 1935 and served up to 1950. and for those of you who served at ganges and who have't joined the association go on..nothing to lose and you'll find a lot of old shipmates there!! Boys normally signed up to a contract of 12 years, which would leave most of them aged in their late 20s after their tours. I joined up in 1968,three years after my brother, he hated it I was one off the sad ones that loved it, even the kit musters on the mast! She had taken on the previous duties from the wooden ship H.M.S. 1905 - 1976 Who would have believed us, this was 1955 words like pedophile and sexual abuse were unheard of. inaccuracy or intrusion, then please For breakfast porridge was on offer, that salt-coated gruel I'd been forced to eat every morning of my schoolboy days. Tony Hayden. This site is part of Newsquest's audited local newspaper network. It was hoped that Developers Haylink Ltd would start work early this year, but their plans were scuppered by the Covid-19 pandemic. Aerial artist's impression of one of the green spaces earmarked for the former HMS. This was followed by a leap from the diving board, as high as any tree I'd ever climbed, wearing the waterlogged boiler suit and a lifejacket. Below are just some of our members who have served at HMS Ganges. Should one of letters be a millimetre out, you found the lot on the deck when you returned to the mess. contact IPSO here, 2001-2023. Im here as my Son (15) wants to join the RN - Wellbeck route AIB soon. RO1 (T) Served from 1970 - 1975 Served in HMS Ganges. The inquiry was carried out by Hampshire Police after debit card transactions of 4,200 and cash machine withdrawals totalling 74,000 were made from the association's bank accounts between August 2010 and June 2012. She was established as a boys' training establishment in 1865, and was based aboard a number of hulks before moving ashore. I just got on with it. He would lay on the number of cuts prescribed, each cut raised a welt on the boys buttocks. On October 28 the White Ensign was lowered for the last time and the ships figurehead was transferred to Royal Hospital School, Holbrook. At 14 he ran away to join the Royal Navy and signed on for 12 years. Learn how your comment data is processed. May 46 to HMS Wakeful, Training Flotilla for a twelve-week tour from . Helpful. First time ever looking at any RN sights. I shuddered to the bone, as I'm sure did other boys. One not only suffered the punishment such as doubling up and down the steps of laundry hill with a 303 rifle held high. The kindly chef asked me whether I intended to eat the mountain of food I'd heaped on my plate or climb it! yes I was there in 92 .Essex, Nolfolk , Herts Suffolk and Cambs police all used it. Change), You are commenting using your Twitter account. Our kit was stowed in small silver lockers that we polished daily, but not like any normal person would stow their clothes. A Gannett Company. You are using an out of date browser. The water was freezing cold, we never had hot water. http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/hms-ganges-swimming-pool-shotley-may-2015.t96792, Anniversary Toast - HMS RALEIGH 25th Oct 2009, Telegraph: "Captain Peter Grindal Obituary", Future Ford vehicles could repossess themselves, 10 myths told by Covid 'experts' now debunked. Im quite sure few if any boys receiving cuts ever thought to run away again. If you cracked on and didn't buckle you were okay, but I wouldn't want to do it again. The Royal Navy training mast in Shotley Gate, pictured in 1936, was erected in 1907, A photograph of the base taken sometime in the 1950s (left), with recruits on the mast in 1937, with one recruit just about visible near the very top, John Youngman said his training at the site stood him in good stead for the rest of his life, Warning: Third party content may contain adverts, A pupil band from The Royal Hospital School performed at the event, It is expected to take at least a year to restore the mast at the tip of the Shotley peninsula, across the water from Felixstowe and Harwich. They looked smarter, more confident, or even downright dejected. The site was closed in 1976 and was used as a maaried quarter estate by the RAF. JavaScript is disabled. In 1905 when the Ganges vessel was finally retired (and towed away to Chatham), the training facility, still named HMS Ganges, moved ashore. He was subsequently dismissed from the service and returned to civilian life. Such a tragedy that this historical place has been left to rot. It was at Shotley Point that the wooden ship HMS Ganges was berthed from 1899, and used as a cadet training ship for the Royal Navy. Doesnt sound too bad does it. All thanks to my Instructor CMEM LUCKENS . It is important that we continue to promote these adverts as our local businesses need as much support as possible during these challenging times. HMS Ganges was a training ship and later stone frigate of the Royal Navy. As Rudyard Kipping wrote in his famous poem IF the you will be a man my son. Recruits used to climb the 143ft (44m)-high mast in formation, with the "button boy" standing on a small, circular platform at the very top, hands-free, but with his legs resting against a metal supporting bar. www.amazon.co.uk/H-m-S-Ganges-Dozen/dp/0906418003/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1269273975&sr=1-1, www.navy-net.co.uk/Forums/viewtopic/t=134/postdays=0/postorder=asc/start=0.html, www.veterans-uk.info/vets_badge/vets_badge.htm. Independent Babergh District councillor for Ganges, Derek Davis. It was as we crossed the parade ground the whole bunch of us suddenly froze and spun to face a huge aircraft-hanger-of-a-building running along its length. contact the editor here. Mr Davis added: They have had the last conditions, including the fire hydrants agreed. There was also a degree of sexual abuse going on at Ganges, but we boys were too scared to ever complain or report such incidents. She was based alternately in Falmouth, Harwich (from 1899) and Shotley (from 1905). later times). Those ads you do see are predominantly from local businesses promoting local services. Discussions between developers and Babergh District Council planning officers have been concluded five years after plans for the huge project were given outline planning permission in December 2015. A planning application for the site was submitted and outline permission was granted in 2015. The HMS Ganges site was initially opened in 1904 acted as a boys training facility for the Royal Navy. Outbreak of World War One. According to the HMS Ganges Museum, her timbers were used to make objects including a grand staircase on an estate, and a cocktail bar in a small hotel, both in Devon. 1959 and what a bugger Ganges turned out to be. We had just finished PT before going to supper, so I was in shorts. "Boys came into Ganges at age 15 and went into the navy as men at 16. I was at Ganges in 1955 and went to visit Shotley in 2005 and was surprised to see police signs near the old swimming baths. Those ads you do see are predominantly from local businesses promoting local services. Maybe we were unlucky with Instructors as one was Court Marshalled, discharged and sent to prison for so called abuse. Joined Ganges Feb '61..went through the same as everyone else. HMS Ganges was a "stone frigate" or land-based institution for the Royal Navy, and between 1905 and 1976 was one of the key training bases used to prepare sailors to defend Great Britain. (LogOut/ Peter Ohara. One lad, a Geordie, was drafted early to a Destroyer bound for the Mediterraniann sailed from Plymouth He was washed overboard on his first few hours at sea..His parents never knew of the misery he suffered at Ganges. and I got seven days 9s. Welcome Guest. Yes indeed, they were the best of times and the worst of times. The money belonged to the HMS Ganges Association for people who served at the former naval training base at Shotley Gate near Ipswich, Suffolk. The association said it had about 3,000 members and at the time of the offences its income from membership fees was about 30,000 a year. Within ten minutes, a second pair of gates appeared, the gates of the real HMS Ganges. Life at Ganges was recalled recently in The Evening Star when a book about the base by Alan Peck was published. Realizing his mistake he fought back and with no way out he had no choice but to work his ticket. In the first week of January it was snowed even harder and it snowed until March. I took a bowl and ate the lot. Find BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. The 142-foot high (43 m) mast was erected in 1907. Two other ratings are recorded as 'drowning' whilst on the books of HMS Ganges and both were in 1944. Hetzner Online GmbH, Industriestrasse 25, D-91710 Gunzenhausen, Germany +49 9831 505-0 abuse@hetzner.com. Attempts have been made to contact developers Haylink Ltd but have been unsucessfull. Reaching high into the sunlit sky stood the mast; its yardarms spread wide like a giant crucifix. Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com. Sad to see such an establishment close as it was so full of history and meant so much to so many. There was one hell to come, the Ganges mast! They were both Ordinary Seamen, one aged 17 and the other aged 18. HMS Ganges (1821) This page summarises records created by this Organisation The summary includes a brief description of the collection (s) (usually including the covering dates of the. Life on the ship was extremely hard, with a memorial in Mylor, Cornwall, recording the names of 53 people who died while training on it between 1866 and 1899. attempted to climb to the top of the mast, Harry and Meghan told to 'vacate' Frogmore Cottage, Explosive found in check-in luggage at US airport, Fungus case forces Jack Daniels to halt construction, Aboriginal spears taken in 1770 to return to Sydney, China and Belarus call for peace in Ukraine, Rare Jurassic-era bug found at Arkansas Walmart. Commander was Trick and a good egg. Allegations of Abuse. I recall watching a boy, who had been thrown in the deep end of the swimming pool, struggling in the water while a sadistic instructor smiled, saying, 'Look what happens if you can't bloody well swim?' Each of us was required to construct a printing block using letters carved in wood. It would not be an exaggeration to say not one of us had the slightest idea of what lay in store for the next year. HP10 9TY. I had already taught myself to swim. Work on the scheme, which would see 285 new homes, a 60-bed nursing home, a large retail space and areas for medical services, will not be started until a spine road through the site, which will take the bulk of construction traffic away from main roads, is built. Babergh District councillor Ganges, Derek Davis, said: From my own personal perspective I have seen how closely our officers and our planning team have worked with the owners of the site and I can imagine that once the lockdown is over and the guys get started, progress will be made very quickly. From the top of the mast, its a long way to come ! H.M.S. July 5 The old HMS Ganges sails out of Harwich Harbour. This portion was taken from the foremast of the corvette Cordelia which was paid off . To get to the platform you would climb out over the Devil's Elbow, legs dangling in the air, only your grip keeping you from certain death. Picture: CLAGUE ARCHITECTS (Image: CLAGUE ARCHITECTS). ( Royal Naval Detention Quarters RNDQs Portsmouth), Listen to No Flowers for Geordie on SoundCloud. Its really difficult to give a definitive time scale but once things get going I would imagine that progress will be very visible whereas a lot of the work going on over the past two or three years hasnt necessarily been seen by the public.. Find out more about HMS Ganges at www.hmsgangesmuseum.com, or visit the museum, located at the end of King Edward VII Drive, in Shotley, IP9 1QJ. HMS Ganges as a training ship in the 1900s (Image: HMS Ganges Museum). Shotly Jan 7 1967 , 4 weeks in the annex, 11months in the main establishment,left the RN after 26 years, as C.C.MEA(P) and you could tell Ganges trained men a mile off, Regrets not a bit.Sorry for the lad in my class that drank a pint of pussers disinfectant (The black stuff that turned white when you added water) I believe he got his Discharge. The bone, as I 'm sure did other boys up and down the steps of laundry with... 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